For planting in your garden, there’s no place like loam

One of the fundamental rules of successful gardening is that to have a healthy, thriving garden, a good place to start has decent soil to grow.

By ‘decent’, we mean soil that drains well but still retains some moisture; is nutritious enough to encourage healthy growth and remains friable – making planting, digging, levelling and raking easy; providing an ideal environment for root growth. It sounds like a tall order.

Loams are an ideal mixture of silt, clay and sand. We mean roughly up to a third clay, another third sand, and the rest silt by ideal. It’s not a precise science, and the results can depend on what is already there.

But by planting into loam, you get a fertile, well-drained and workable soil mix.

How can you tell if that’s what you’ve got in your garden? On a dry day, grab a handful of soil and squeeze it gently. Ideally, you don’t want the makings of a mud pie here.

In contrast, neither do you want the soil to flow between your fingers like you’re on the beach. If this happens, you’ve got too much sand, meaning moisture and nutrients will soak away before roots have had a chance to absorb them.

An ideal consistency would be a softball of soil that you can easily crumble away. The sand aids drainage while the clay retains moisture; the silt is like a bonding agent for the two.

The perfect combination will result in a pH-neutral soil, which means a pH level of 7, so neither excessively acidic (ericaceous) or alkaline, giving you more comprehensive options for what you can successfully grow.

Unfortunately, few gardens are like this from scratch, especially if you have a new build property.

To achieve an excellent loamy consistency, you need to be a dedicated gardener and gradually introduce organic matter over several years. But being a longer-term solution, it can be frustrating if eventually, you don’t achieve the desired results, despite doing everything right.

Experimenting and changing the blend consistently if you’ve already planted your beds and borders can be challenging too.

We can tell you’re ahead of us at this stage. What’s the easy way to get a loamy mix in your garden?

You could try Chargrace Soils Planting Loam, which you can introduce to your garden. It is available in various quantities, either loose or bagged. You don’t necessarily need to do it all at the same time, obviously, if you are improving the soil in a new-build garden, you need to do the whole thing as a project, but with an established garden, you may wish to consider a plan to introduce loam in stages.

You can calculate how much you’ll need by using Google Maps ‘measure distance’ facility. Zoom into your garden and right-click where you want to measure from. Then click at each point around the plot you measure until you get back to the starting point. You will then have the linear and square meterage of your plot. Multiply the square meterage by the depth you need.

By introducing Chargrace Planting Loam to your garden, the roots of your plants will get the very best of everything they need; nutrients, gaps between the loamy particles to seek out moisture and sand to allow aeration and prevent stagnation can lead to disease.

Available with a range of delivery options, including tonne bags unloaded by Hiab and bulk tippers, call our sales team on 01342 893174 or email info@chargracesoils.co.uk to find out how we can assist with your garden project.